Best and Worst of Restrooms

[GCrites]

3 1/2. No baseboards on the walls. There's spider webs, spiders, and maybe you'll spot a few house centipedes and/or roaches if you're lucky. Somehow things other than bacteria manage to live in this god-forsaken excuse for a restroom. Also, a lot of visible piping. Fluorescent lights which may or may not have a casing, buzzing their miserable life away. "Why here?" They might be thinking. "Why not a nice clean office in Seattle? Why an awful, unmaintained gas station bathroom in Podunk County, Midwest, population 4, not counting hogs? What did I do to deserve this?"

Oooh, how about the circular florescent lights you used to see? Maybe one or two for the entire bathroom. Shadows everywhere.

[SkyPesos]

Special shoutout in this thread to All Nippon Airways with their bidet style toilets in their lavatories. 5/5.

[CtrlAltDel]

Best Buccees, they have attendents in there at all times.  Worst any small gas station or busy bar.

I can't say I agree with this either. Bathroom attendants are not a positive thing, in my view.

[Rothman]

Best Buccees, they have attendents in there at all times.  Worst any small gas station or busy bar.

I can't say I agree with this either. Bathroom attendants are not a positive thing, in my view.

Why not?

[SP Cook]

IMHO, among local chains.

Sheetz.  Agree with HB, usually solid.

Speedway.  Hit and miss, depends on when the place was built.

GO Mart. Total filth.  Also not ADA compliant and they don't care. 

Little General.  Slightly above GO Mart level, but not much.

State rest areas:

WV - average, vending machines are Pepsi, which is gross.
WV Turnpike - slightly below average, often dirty
OH - average, but special extra points for having rest areas on non-interstates, such as US 35 and OH 32.  I have even seen a few in rural areas which have "primitive" facilities.  But most states would not bother at all, so good on them.
KY - average, but have closed too many.
VA - above average, cleaner than normal, but a lot of preachy posters rather than tourism stuff.
NC - above average, seem to do a tear down and rebuild on a regular schedule.

Porta johns.  Friend of mine got me into the luxury tents at the old Greenbrier Classic PGA deal.  They had like 5 RV type vehicles which were all restrooms.  Went in the door and every room was a rest room like you would have at home.  AC, clean.  Apparently they just drive these from tournament to tournament.

[JoePCool14]

We stopped an an Indiana rest stop on I-65 yesterday north of Indy. That left a lot to be desired. The place definitely needed a tear down and rebuild.

[GCrites]

IMHO, among local chains.



State rest areas:

WV - average, vending machines are Pepsi, which is gross.
WV Turnpike - slightly below average, often dirty
OH - average, but special extra points for having rest areas on non-interstates, such as US 35 and OH 32.  I have even seen a few in rural areas which have "primitive" facilities.  But most states would not bother at all, so good on them.
KY - average, but have closed too many.
VA - above average, cleaner than normal, but a lot of preachy posters rather than tourism stuff.
NC - above average, seem to do a tear down and rebuild on a regular schedule.

Ohio went on a closing spree of primitive rest areas in the late 2000s-early 2010s. Some of the ones they tore out had just been rebuilt a decade or less before. Population went from probably over 25 down to 3. Of course some were the real oldies that were built of wood.

[CtrlAltDel]

Best Buccees, they have attendents in there at all times.  Worst any small gas station or busy bar.

I can't say I agree with this either. Bathroom attendants are not a positive thing, in my view.

Why not?

In part, it's because I find the services they provide to be things I can do for myself. I can get my own hand soap and paper towels without assistance, and having someone give me these things is not something I feel is worth tipping over. But mostly, I just think it's weird and awkward to have someone in the bathroom who isn't there to go to the bathroom.

[Rothman]

Best Buccees, they have attendents in there at all times.  Worst any small gas station or busy bar.

I can't say I agree with this either. Bathroom attendants are not a positive thing, in my view.

Why not?

In part, it's because I find the services they provide to be things I can do for myself. I can get my own hand soap and paper towels without assistance, and having someone give me these things is not something I feel is worth tipping over. But mostly, I just think it's weird and awkward to have someone in the bathroom who isn't there to go to the bathroom.

They also may be keeping it clean for you.

[sprjus4]

Best Buccees, they have attendents in there at all times.  Worst any small gas station or busy bar.

I can't say I agree with this either. Bathroom attendants are not a positive thing, in my view.

Why not?

In part, it's because I find the services they provide to be things I can do for myself. I can get my own hand soap and paper towels without assistance, and having someone give me these things is not something I feel is worth tipping over. But mostly, I just think it's weird and awkward to have someone in the bathroom who isn't there to go to the bathroom.

At Buc-ee's? The "attendants"  are in there constantly cleaning the bathroom. Not giving you services. That would be weird.

[sprjus4]

Brown shit all over it.

I would hope it's brown.

[US 89]

Grossest can tend to be gas station ones that aren't accessible from inside the store, but I think we've reached consensus on that in the thread

Last time I used one of those was at the Chevron in West Wendover. It actually wasn't too bad. I've seen worse inside stations.

The worst restrooms are those outhouse pit toilets you'll find at trailheads and such. In fact, by far the nastiest restroom I've ever encountered on a road trip was the pit toilet at the "visitor info" center just outside Walden, CO. Shit absolutely everywhere... and swarms of flies to go with it.

[SectorZ]

I would imagine if you were pooping into an outhouse and saw this, it would qualify as worst of.

https://www.wmur.com/article/man-pulled-from-women-s-outhouse-tank/5142933

He escaped a jail sentence, which was smart, because then he did it again...

https://bangordailynews.com/2009/09/01/news/man-admits-crawling-into-outhouse-pit-again/

[Rothman]

I would imagine if you were pooping into an outhouse and saw this, it would qualify as worst of.

https://www.wmur.com/article/man-pulled-from-women-s-outhouse-tank/5142933

He escaped a jail sentence, which was smart, because then he did it again...

https://bangordailynews.com/2009/09/01/news/man-admits-crawling-into-outhouse-pit-again/

Dangit, Bandit, we told you again and again to stop that!

[hbelkins]

I would imagine if you were pooping into an outhouse and saw this, it would qualify as worst of.

https://www.wmur.com/article/man-pulled-from-women-s-outhouse-tank/5142933

He escaped a jail sentence, which was smart, because then he did it again...

https://bangordailynews.com/2009/09/01/news/man-admits-crawling-into-outhouse-pit-again/

This guy either has an extreme golden shower fetish, or he watched one too many "two girls, one cup" video.

[1995hoo]

The only situation in which I can imagine it being even remotely rational to hide in an outhouse pit is in the disturbing scene in Schindler's List where the boy jumps into a toilet to hide from the Nazis.

[andrepoiy]

Worst I have experienced would probably be a squat toilet in China...

[Roadgeekteen]

I peed into a tree once

[index]

I peed into a tree once

Have you ever taken a nice fat leak out in the open, in nature, where the nearest person on the trail is at least a 20-minute walk from you? It feels liberating. Like it was meant to be. It was at that moment I felt like I was truly one with nature.

[index]

3 1/2. No baseboards on the walls. There's spider webs, spiders, and maybe you'll spot a few house centipedes and/or roaches if you're lucky. Somehow things other than bacteria manage to live in this god-forsaken excuse for a restroom. Also, a lot of visible piping. Fluorescent lights which may or may not have a casing, buzzing their miserable life away. "Why here?" They might be thinking. "Why not a nice clean office in Seattle? Why an awful, unmaintained gas station bathroom in Podunk County, Midwest, population 4, not counting hogs? What did I do to deserve this?"

Oooh, how about the circular florescent lights you used to see? Maybe one or two for the entire bathroom. Shadows everywhere.

Bonus points if they're flickering (like I mentioned earlier) and they're flickering in such a way that it hurts your eyes. Like looking into an old CRT display that doesn't have the right refresh rate. When I was younger I had an old Magnavox TV in my room that was like that. Eye strain through the roof.

[GCrites]

I peed into a tree once

Have you ever taken a nice fat leak out in the open, in nature, where the nearest person on the trail is at least a 20-minute walk from you? It feels liberating. Like it was meant to be. It was at that moment I felt like I was truly one with nature.

Or when you pee off of a cliff and your pee turns into little spheres.

[GCrites]

3 1/2. No baseboards on the walls. There's spider webs, spiders, and maybe you'll spot a few house centipedes and/or roaches if you're lucky. Somehow things other than bacteria manage to live in this god-forsaken excuse for a restroom. Also, a lot of visible piping. Fluorescent lights which may or may not have a casing, buzzing their miserable life away. "Why here?" They might be thinking. "Why not a nice clean office in Seattle? Why an awful, unmaintained gas station bathroom in Podunk County, Midwest, population 4, not counting hogs? What did I do to deserve this?"

Oooh, how about the circular florescent lights you used to see? Maybe one or two for the entire bathroom. Shadows everywhere.

Bonus points if they're flickering (like I mentioned earlier) and they're flickering in such a way that it hurts your eyes. Like looking into an old CRT display that doesn't have the right refresh rate. When I was younger I had an old Magnavox TV in my room that was like that. Eye strain through the roof.

And that just makes the buzzing more annoying since it's uneven.

[Scott5114]

I peed into a tree once

Have you ever taken a nice fat leak out in the open, in nature, where the nearest person on the trail is at least a 20-minute walk from you? It feels liberating. Like it was meant to be. It was at that moment I felt like I was truly one with nature.

That's kind of a regular experience for me, since my current job is remodeling a barn in the middle of a 45-acre lot. We have four walls and some semblance of a roof, but no plumbing yet. You could walk all the way up the hill to the farmhouse and use the toilet...or you could just go behind the trees where nobody can see, and take a leak there.

[Roadgeekteen]

I peed into a tree once

Have you ever taken a nice fat leak out in the open, in nature, where the nearest person on the trail is at least a 20-minute walk from you? It feels liberating. Like it was meant to be. It was at that moment I felt like I was truly one with nature.

I have. It feels good.

[hbelkins]

I'm getting anxious for the Buc-ee's to open in Madison County so I can go see what all the hype about their restrooms is about.

I've also found that chain truck stop bathrooms (Love's, Pilot, Flying J) are usually in pretty good shape.